Fans of the Dragon Ball series have gotten to know some insane fighters brought into the fray. Still, you might wonder how they fare in match-ups we didn't get to see. After all, power levels are bogus, and the animation teams tend to make some big liberties with the canon just to juice up the fights. So we're going to try and rank the top 20 combatants in Dragon Ball history — though we'll be avoiding letting characters appear more than once with their temporary ♑fusions and such (for example: no Gogeta or Vegito)🉐.
We're exposed to characters that can destroy entire planets early on. It's not a major feat anymore when anyone on this list can likely do so. So, we're going to have to read further into the lore and guesstimate from the match-ups we have seen. One important developer's note that we rely on, is that most of the🔯 time (not always) movies will show a stronger main villain tha♎n the previous movie.
Currently, Dragon Ball Super is airing the 'Universe Survival' saga, as the strongest fighters from every universe face off against each other in the Tournament of Power. Since it hasn't settle💖d yet, we'll limit our ranking solely to fighters that fought in Universe 7. Due to retcons and unreliable portrayals in 🔯the games, there will be placements that are suspect. So, expect a loose ranking and of course, spoilers!
20 Piccolo
Honestly, Piccolo is one of the toughest characters to place on this list. Some believe that he reached his peak after fusing with Kami, unable to ♏overpower Semi-Perfect Cell. Others are certain that after training for the past few years, he 🌸could now easily overpower many of the villains after him on this list. Since it's uncertain, let's just give him an honorary flexible spot.
In Dragon Ball Super, we've seen Piccolo fight🐭 on par with some powerful opponents, like Frost and Gohan. However, it seems to be the case that Piccolo no longer relies as heavily on brute force. He utilizes sneak attacks, his elongated arm, regeneration, and the multi-form technique in order to outwit stronger opponents.
19 Broly
Once every thousand years, a Saiyan will be unnꩵaturally powerful from birth. As an infant, his power l🅷evel was already 'over 9000.' Though, the Legendary Super Saiyan is actually fairly lackluster despite all the fuss. There isn't any reason to believe that he's stronger than Perfect Cell, and a subsequent movie where he returns as Bio-Broly actually de-powers the character.
Still, Broly makes a good marker for all the characters that didn't make it onto this list. It's easy to say he's stronger than🦂 many of the honorable mentions that would have been more interesting than another Saiyan; like Pikkon, Dabura, and Bojack. But in his appearances, Broly really gives his opponents a hard time, necessitating many to gang up on him.
18 ꧙ Perfect Cell
Cell is from the future. He is a creature bio-engineered with the DNA of Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Piccolo, and a few various others. Cell 💮was already powerful enough to fight on par with a Super Saiyan. He uses his tail to absorb cities💜 full of people to become stronger than the Androids. And when he subsequently absorbs Androids 17 and 18, his power multiplies.
Cell's various forms make good benchmarks for creating the rankings on this list. He's fought a lot of people during his short time terrorizing the planet. He's since become a rather iconic villain despite being among the many that were discarded to the wayside after becoming rather irrelevant compared to the powers in tಞhe Majin Buu saga and afterward🦩.
17 Hatchiyac𝓀k
Hatchiyack is a machine created by the Tuffles, a race that was wiped out by the Saiyans. In turn, the Tuffles tend to do what they can to take our the remaining Saiyans. At a certain point, King Kai remarks that Hatchiyack is the strongest foe that he's ever sensed, meaning he is certainly stronger than characters like B🍒roly, Perfect Cell, and Bojack.
Hatchiyack is capable of creating clones of himself and fi🦹re his powerful revenge cannon, but most iconically, he absorbs the hatred of anyone who hates Saiyans. He utilizes this to resurrect various other villains as well as rea🅘ch his own powerful form. One thing to note, his revenge cannon takes fifteen seconds of charging. Goku takes advantage of this by having everyone attack the foe while his defenses are down.
16 Hirudegar꧑n
Hirudegarn is a giant monster 🔴from Planet Konats. He was once a statue of a Demon God that purified people's hearts, but eventually given back life by sorcery. He was cut in half and separateﷺd across the far sides of the galaxy. After half of Hirudegarn comes to Earth, Gohan is tricked into gathering the Dragon Balls to bring the other half to Earth.
Hirudegarn is surprisingly quick for his size. He is capable of absorbing life force, much like Cell. He does well to push back the heroes. It takes the power of Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks to stop his onslaught after he ravages the city, but this just makes him come out of his shell even stronger. Creators have noted that h𒆙e's the second strongest villain of the original 13 movies, after Janemba.
15 Janemba
Janemba is a demon created by purple clouds of evil energy. At first, he is a large, portly yellow creature that can only say its own name. Even in this form, he fight🍌s by playing around; creating portals, smaller versions of himself, and blasts of energy. However, after Super Saiyan 3 Goku smashes Janemba's face in, the creature shows his final form.
Janemba has a litany of unfair abilities at his disposal. Depending on what he is appearing in, Janemba can regenerate, create clones, shapeshift, and manipulate reality to some extent. Of course, even without his trickery, he is fairly powerful, needing Gogeta to defeat him. And in his reappearances in the Dragon Ball games, Janemba has only become stronger.
14 Uub
Meet the young man who will become the strongest human alive (out of humans without any cyborg parts, anyway). Uub is the human reincarnation of Kid Buu and according to the epilogue during the last episode of Dragon Ball Z, he is go🍸ing to get five years of ma🅰rtial arts tutelage under Goku from a young age. As Buu's various forms could have taken multiple places on this list, Uub will represent the best Buu has to offer.
In Dragon Ball GT, Uub finds out about his past life, and eventually fuses with the good Majin Buu, becoming significantly more powerful as Majuub. He doesn't gain Buu's ability to regenerate or manipulate his form, but he is still capable of turning enemies into chocolate. Despite the retcon of the series, Uub is still mentioned now and then in Dragon Ball Super.
13 ༺ Android 17 𓆉
Super Android 17 should be one of the strongest after his performance in Dragon Ball GT as one of the last major villains. However, the original Android 17 is actually now surpassing his retconned fused-form in recent episodes of Dragon Ball Super. While his sister enjoyed staying at roughly the same strength oꦫver the past few years, Android 17 has been taking🐓 this time to improve.
That's right, he got to this level by training. Before, Android 17 wasn't comparable to Imperfect Cell. Somehow, he overcame his human/robot limitations, and he can now handle himself against Super Saiyan Gods. Perhaps he can't win, but h💙is limitless energy and utilization barriers makes him a contender. He's since been recruited for the Universe 7 Team.
12 Mira
Mira is the main antagonist of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, after having appeared as a major villain in the online Dragon Ball games previous to this. Early on, he's kind of weak and even afr☂aid at times. However, in his je♌alousy at other villains that reach their full potential, Mira realizes that he needs willpower like them to surpass his limits and succeed in his goals of becoming the strongest.
Liᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚke Perfect Cell, Mira is a bio-mechanical android from the future. He is made up of cells from some of the strongest beings in the series; including Saiyans, demons, and possibly Frieza and Namekian DNA. He sought to gain some of Goku's DNA to integrate into himself. He eventually absorbs his creator, Towa, to reach his final form.
11 Demigra
Demon God Demigra is the main antagonist Dragon Ball Xenoverse (though he appears in other games). He is powerf♑ul, but confusing. At one point, he seems apprehensive over fighting Gohaꦰn. At another point, he revels in the thought of fighting Beerus. Still, he's definitely no pushover and certainly above most of the fighters on this list.
Demigra spends 75 million years hon🦩ing his magical power in order to reign as a God of Time. He is capable of time travel, teleportation, mind control (anyone without godly energy), and creating wormholes. In one of his earlier forms, he's supposed to be comparable to a Super Saiyan 3, but he advances multiple times to eventually reach Makyouka Form, a transformation only for demons.